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Today, I share the second layout from my journal challenge (read the original post here). I shared my process with my women’s group and ended up with a a layout from start to “finish” on 5 sets of pages. Since I didn’t want to end up with 5 similar layouts, I challenged myself to come up with 5 different layouts.

Here is where I started last week:

I thought I had this layout all figured out in my head. I had a few elements to use (some scrapbook paper a friend gifted to me, a bird from an art mag, a scrap piece of a magazine page with a cool design) so I thought it was going to come together pretty quickly. I was wrong!

I drew the scrolly element in by hand in pencil first then painted with a black acrylic.

Next, I added some blues and yellows in to pick up the color of the scrapbook paper. And then I got stuck. For a week. Nothing looked right. So I left it alone (well, truth be told, I tried working on it a few times over the week with no luck)

I was inspired by some new paints I found during a few trips to the art store and ended up with a different color palette.

At this point, I thought I was just going to go with a different palette and continue with the scrolly element. Nope, still wrong. (oh, and by they way, the Matisse is a new brand for me and I LOVED it. Really smooth texture and the color (Mineral Blue) is fantastic!!! I am also really enjoying the Winsor & Newton acrylics and this Prussian Blue Hue is amazing!

On this layout, I called upon my inner child and did some finger painting. It allowed me to add some really cool texture and mix the colors randomly.

I am loving this layout now!

And 2 out of those 3 original elements work with this new color palette. I went through my pile of “stuff” and found some stamps and this cute piece of tag that fit in well.

I continued the scallops from the tag up to the stamped element (I used a few Tim Holtz acrylic clear stamps)

The bird and stamps looked like they were sitting on top of the page instead of being a part of it, so I added some paint (with my fingertips again) an now it looks like a part of the layout.

Close up of those stamps….

and of the super cool bird.

So, what do you think? I LOVE this layout. I wasn’t sure I was ever going to get there, but this is a perfect example of how sometimes you think you have it all figured out till you actually start working on it. nstead of forcing it, I kept playing with it till I worked out right and I ended up with a layout much better than I originally imagined.